Tesla is preparing to release a battery for our homes

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Tesla Motors is currently leading the pack in terms of electric car innovation and production, and a massive part of that is developing batteries that provide a lot of power for hundreds of miles on a single charge. But Tesla isn’t just developing its batteries with vehicles in mind, it wants to use them in houses, too.

Elon Musk has announced during an earnings call that the company is set to release the Tesla home battery “fairly soon.” This consumer battery is expected to link up with green energy generators, such as solar panels, and offer an efficient way to store the energy being produced. In doing so, it will remove, or at least significantly reduce a building’s reliance on the utility companies.

This isn’t actually a new idea for Musk. He already offers home energy storage solutions through company SolarCity, but that’s a complete system including solar panels. This new battery looks to be a separate offering that can be used with any energy generating system, including those already installed in homes and indeed at business locations.

As to when we can expect to buy (or more likely rent) a Tesla home battery, production isn’t set to start for another 6 months. However, the design is finished. So this is a 2016 product effectively, although we should learn about availability in different territories and pricing before the end of 2015. It also seems likely the battery will be pushed by utilities who increasingly have to support alternate methods of power generation. And you can bet Tesla is talking to them about that in a bid to secure bulk sales.